Peculiarities

         The double rainbow, as seen from our deck last evening, was the beginning of the rain season on the California central coast. Rain season ends and begins in July, so our August .2 of an inch is an early start and a bit peculiar.

        And so is this. The other evening as I walked back from taking out some trash I spotted and and then was buzzed by the "smallest hummingbird I've seen" as I said to Lana.

        "Really?" she said, going back to what she was reading.

        Well, she saw it the next day, with our granddaughter and she was a bit more excited about it.

        It is not a hummingbird, but it has a wing flap rate as high as the hummers. It is a White-lined Sphinx Moth and grows to 2-3 inches. Speedy little creature.

        These we found on a lupine bush. They were interrupted long enough to be inspected by granddaughter and Nana, and photographed before being returned to their bliss on the lupine.

        

        This was a sunset cocktail companion the other evening at a Camp Ocean Pines fundraising event. 

        I frequently hear some of his cousins as they observe their nightly vespers here on the ridge.

        Time to cue the frog. Actually as I opened the spa cover yesterday a little dude had taken to napping next to the control buttons. Granddaughter and Nana got a chance to spot it, before his spoiled nap led him to leap to the step and then to dash under the spa.

        Sorry Kermit...so I'll vamp and quote your song, that Jim Henson helped you 

pen....

        "What's on the other side?

        Rainbows are visions, but only illusions.

        And rainbows have nothing to hide.

        So we've been told and some choose to believe it

        I know they're wrong, wait and see.

        Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,

        the lovers, the dreamers and me."

        See you down the trail.

        

THE WEEKENDER :) LOOK, UP IN THE AIR

IT'S A, NO IT'S A....

Today THE WEEKENDER :) provides a 

couple of fascinating videos of 

flight.  

One provides a great visual text of hummingbirds

and interaction. It is promotional video, but it is
very enjoyable.

Now, you'll need to look closely to see
an extraordinary flight.
An unmanned glider flies over the Pacific Ocean
at 20 times the speed of sound.
The video was released by DARPA, the Defense
Advanced Research Agency.  It features
the Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle-2. It was
launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, atop
a Minotaur 4 rocket.  It is hard to see, but it is a 
glimpse of something traveling faster than Mach 5.

Keep looking up.
See you down the trail.